The Tories “probably” should have axed NHS England while they were in power, Robert Jenrick has said. Sir Keir Starmer yesterday announced that the quango in charge of running the health service would be scrapped.

The move is expected to save at least £500million a year and could see the workforce of NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care halved. Asked if he wished the Conservatives had ditched NHS England, shadow justice secretary Mr Jenrick told Sky News: “I think that probably is something that we should have done.

“We believe in a leaner, smaller state and so, where there are opportunities to get rid of quangos, they should be taken.

“It’s certainly true that NHS England is a very large and expensive organisation, and this will give us the opportunity to reduce bureaucracy. But what really matters to the public is not how the NHS is structured, it is the outcomes for patients.”

But the senior Tory MP warned that Labour’s record of running the health service in Wales was “very poor” with outcomes “demonstrably worse".

He added: “Waiting lists are longer, so we’ll have to see how Wes Streeting and Keir Starmer ultimately manage the NHS now they have greater ministerial responsibility.”

NHS England is a public body delivering services with taxpayers' money, which was set up to support and oversee NHS trusts and wider organisations to deliver healthcare.

It has worked with the Government to set priorities and agree funding for the NHS.

The Prime Minister said the previous Tory government had been mistaken to make NHS England more independent from central government, as he said the state was "weaker than ever".

He added: "Overstretched, unfocused, trying to do too much, doing it badly."

Sir Keir promised the move would free up money for doctors, nurses and frontline services, and cut red tape to help speed up improvements in the health service, amid frustrations about the pace of change.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the Commons on Thursday he wanted the merging NHS England with the Department of Health to be completed within two years.

He told MPs: "Today we're abolishing the biggest quango in the world."

The changes will reverse the 2012 shake-up of the NHS under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, which the Government says created "burdensome" layers of bureaucracy without any clear lines of accountability.